(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source package and a backlight unit including the light source package.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Flat panel display devices may be classified into self-light-emitting display devices, which may emit light to display images, and passive (non-emissive) display devices, which may require one or more light sources. Self-light-emitting display devices may include light emitting diode (LED) display devices, field emissive display (FED) devices, vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) devices, and plasma display panel (PDP) devices. Passive (non-emissive) display devices may include liquid crystal display (LCD) devices and electrophoretic display devices.
A passive display device, such as a transmissive type display device, may include a display panel for displaying an image and a backlight unit for supplying light to the display panel. The backlight unit may include a light source package that includes at least one light source for generating light. The light source may include, for example, one or more of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), a flat fluorescent lamp (FFL), and a light emitting diode (LED). Recently, light emitting diodes, which may require relatively low power consumption and may generate a relatively small amount of heat, have been widely used as light sources for display devices.
The backlight unit should substantially uniformly irradiate light to a rear surface of the display panel. The backlight unit may be a direct type backlight unit or an edge type backlight unit, according to the position of the light source in the backlight unit.
A direct type backlight unit may include a light source that directly irradiates light to a display panel. In the direct type backlight unit, an optical lens may be used to refract the light emitted from the light source such that the light is widely spread.
In an edge type backlight unit, one or more light sources may be disposed at one side or both sides of a light guide, and light may be diffused through the light guide and indirectly irradiated to a display panel.
To reduce manufacturing cost of the backlight unit, it is preferable to reduce the number of the light sources and/or the optical parts included in the backlight unit. Nevertheless, given a limited number of light sources and/or optical parts, the beam spread angles of the light sources may be insufficient to ensure uniformity of the irradiated light.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention; therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.